Bingham McCutchen chief operating officer Tracee Whitley had never been to Lexington, Kentucky, when the firm first began to consider consolidating many of its support staff there last year. Now, with the new global services center set to launch in a month, the North Carolina native has decided to leave Boston for the Bluegrass State.

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What's being said

Oh, hey. Disgruntled much? SantaMonica is absolutely right. Staff at these firms toil and work for years and years... and some lawyers' sense of entitlement and demands at these firms would make a normal person's hair stand on end. And their thanks? Well... this. You can either uproot and leave your friends, your family, your culture, your life... or lose your job.

We appreciate that the economies are these relocation cities are thrilled, and we appreciate that from a financial point of view, it's a good move. But what about the folks like us who have worked at these jobs for year after year after year and are now presented with this... choice? For the bottom line of extra dollars into the partners' pockets (not ours).

Lawyers are NOT good business people. If they were, they would understand that the strength of their firm is in the loyalty and commitment of the staff. We've had a horrendous recession, and so their profits have slipped. Now the lower classes must pay. Yet again.

Profits for partners is the name of the game. Jeff Hunter of Kaye Scholer should take a page from this woman's book and transfer to Tallahassee. See how much he likes it. Also interesting to see how much the lawyers like it, because, unless they are VERY tech-savvy (and IMHO few of them are), they will be shooting themselves in the collective foot for a few extra sheckles. But, you know, legal staff -- we live to serve, massah - so it'll probably be up to the minions to make sure no partner misses a billable minute because of inconvenience...

While Lexington cheers and brings out the marching band, 225 Bingham employees (250 minus that 10% she claims are considering the move) are losing their jobs in Bingham offices across the country. Some of those people have decades of tenure with Bingham and are now unemployed.